Vindicat again absent from opening of academic year

Student association Vindicat will not be allowed to present itself during the opening of the academic year in September for the second year in a row. The club hasn’t applied for accreditation yet, and evaluation of such an application can take ‘several weeks’.
By Giulia Fabrizi / Translation by Sarah van Steenderen

Last year was the first time Vindicat was absent from the ceremonial procession of professors and student associations. In October of 2018, the association was excluded from participating in official RUG and Hanze events and their committee grants, a remuneration for students doing board work, were also cancelled.

The actions were punishment from the RUG and Hanze University of Applied Sciences for a series of incidents involving Vindicat. In 2016, violence was used during initiation rites and the club published a ‘bang list’ of female members’ photos and contact information. A year later, association members wreaked havoc at the Sushi Mall restaurant and an incident took place at rowing association Aegir, which is part of Vindicat.

Improvement

Vindicat has been trying to improve the association culture since 2016. The RUG’s Accreditation Committee for Student Associations gave the students the benefit of the doubt in the summer of 2017, but it decided in October of 2018 that the club hadn’t made sufficient concrete changes.

Vindicat can apply for accreditation ‘when they themselves feel they’ve made sufficient improvements’, explained RUG spokesperson Jorien Bakker. Vindicat president Cappi Wefers Bettink says the association is working hard to improve. Vindicat wants to show it takes making changes seriously and that their work is paying off. ‘We plan to apply for accreditation before October.’

Accreditation evaluation

According to Jorien Bakker, the Accreditation Committee will need at least a few weeks to evaluate the accreditation request. ‘The committee will spend weeks on interviews, meetings, and evaluation’, she explains. This means it could take a few months before the RUG will decide to end Vindicat’s punishment.

‘Since they haven’t applied for accreditation, it hasn’t been evaluated yet. That means we will not be inviting them to any official events for now’, Bakker says.

 

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